Egypt’s Banque Misr cancels limits on use of credit cards abroad

Egypt’s second largest state-owned bank, Banque Misr has cancelled all the limits on Egyptians’ use of credit cards abroad, its vice chairman Akef El Maghraby announced Tuesday.

The move follows similar measures taken by a number of other banks recently such as the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Commercial International Bank (CIB).

A hard currency crunch and an earlier decline in foreign currency reserves have led the majority of private and state-owned banks earlier in 2016 to tighten limits for withdrawals on pound-denominated cards outside the country.  However, following the flotation of the pound in early November, a number of have banks relaxed their limits since then.